


I'm burnin', I'm burnin', I'm burnin' for you

by SpicyCheese



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fighterfighter Shaw, Serial Arsonist Root, and some fan art to go with
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 19:33:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10646580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpicyCheese/pseuds/SpicyCheese
Summary: Fighterfighter Shaw and Serial Arsonist Root. Plus some fan art. Enjoy!





	1. Fic

*_*_*

Becoming a firefighter had absolutely nothing to do with the nice man who offered her a sandwich after the car accident. That's what she says anyway.

Shaw had been infatuated with fire before that though. She’d set a few herself, liked the way it went where it wanted, consumed everything in its path. She liked the raw power and the elegant beauty of it.

In 3rd grade Mâmân caught her setting a small fire in a can out back (Shaw liked to experiment burning different materials to see the difference in burn rate and intensity) and the repercussions were NOT GOOD.  She made Shaw promise not to set any more fires and Shaw agreed. She hasn’t. Now she puts them out.

Shaw understands fire. She understands the science of it, but also that at the end of the day it’s not something to be trifled with. She respects the power of it. Shaw thinks this makes her good at her job. “Being low to the ground helps too” as Fusco reminds her often.

There’s an uptake in frequency of fires one month and Shaw starts to see a pattern. It’s hard at first to tell what the businesses have in common, except the CEO’s seem to all be douchebags in one way or another. The fires are set to cause the most financial impact, but the least chance of casualty. Shaw’s first thought is it’s some sort of SJW vigilante.

This isn’t some disgruntled soccer mom with a Zippo though. No, the person that set these understands fire well. Maybe better than Shaw? No. (Maybe.) It’s the way they’re set… it’s elegant in its ruthless perfection? It’s NEARLY flawlessly undetectable, really inventive with accelerant combos no one has ever heard of but are just exactly what each job needs. This person, they come as close as Shaw’s ever seen to someone actually controlling fire.

Shaw’s almost envious.

She reads a newspaper article about a new business that moved to town. The CEO bought out the space where the homeless teen center was going to go for his warehouse. She has a feeling that the new company’s warehouse might be a target.

Shaw asks Fusco to join her on a “stakeout”. Okay, she ploys him with an extra large meatball sub from Abandanzio’s. They’re only in front of the company warehouse for about 30 minutes and fuck if she doesn’t see some skinny mofo slipping out of a window of the place, as the other side of the building bursts into flame.

She thinks she told Fusco to call the cops, but can’t be sure. All she knows is she is running and she’s going to catch this asshole.

Luckily the string bean doesn’t know the area and runs right into a dead end.

Oh. It’s a woman.

And oh, is she annoying. She doesn’t admit to the fires of course, but it’s as clear as the cute nose on her obnoxious face that she set them.

She taunts Shaw for a bit until the sirens start to get closer. Shaw moves in to tackle her and she FUCKING TAZES Shaw. Who the fuck uses a tazer?

“You can call me Root.” And she’s fucking gone.

After that, the fires start to take on a different pattern. First of all, now they’re all on Shaw’s shift. Second, they’re getting more complex. Each new one is a puzzle she has to unravel to figure out how Root started it. Shaw gives the leads to arson team but just as their closing in, Root slips away. This woman is like a cat leaving little presents for Shaw and it’s so obvious even Fusco’s caught on and started teasing her. 

Lieutenant Carter warns Shaw not to get in over her head, but doesn’t specify what she means by that. 

Root shows up in Shaw’s apartment one night. Shaw doesn’t flinch, despite the gun pointed at her head.

“I saw you run in that building yesterday,” Root says. “They told you not to but you did. You saved that old woman. The paper called you a hero.”

“Just doing my job.”

Root chuckles lowly, like Shaw answered the wrong question. “And catching me? Is that part of the job too?”

“No, you’re just a hobby.”

Root grins in earnest and Shaw’s not sure why it’s so unsettling.

Shaw continues to try and piece things together, conducts her own stakeouts, but never seems to catch Root in the act again.

Then there’s the four alarm fire at the business office of the oil refinery.

The site manager said all the employees were out but Shaw just has this feeling. She snakes past Fusco and runs into the building.

It’s a mistake.

The fire is so hot (what did Root use this time?) and it’s clear Shaw only has a few minutes before the whole building caves. She’s about to turn around when she hears something-  a voice. She has to crawl, but makes it to the back room.

And there’s Root. Trapped with her fucking leg stuck under a fallen beam. Like something out of a friggin’ movie.

“Come here often?” Root tries to smile, but is clearly in pain.

“Was getting yourself killed part of your plan?” Shaw grunts through her ventilator mask, surveying the scene and trying not to calculate just how hopeless the situation is.

“How else am I going to get the pretty girl to notice me?” She barely finishes the sentence before wheezing and Shaw’s afraid she’s going to pass out. Her expression changes though, shifts and the teasing is replaced by something raw and intense. “Get out of here Shaw,” she coughs again. “There are people that need you.”

Shaw has no idea how she manages to lift the beam. She cannot vouch how she managed to haul them both out, just before the roof collapses behind them. And has no comment on the fact that she rides in the ambulance with Root, all the way back to the hospital.

Broken tibia, fibula, and severe smoke inhalation. Root is half dead when they get her finally settle her into the hospital room.

The look she gives Shaw when she comes to though…

Shaw leaves the room.

She keeps vigil outside in the hallway. Says despite handcuffs and the guard posted outside the room, she doesn’t trust Root not to get away again. That’s what she says, anyway.

Fusco tells Shaw to be careful. She asks what he means by that, and he laughs like she doesn’t get the joke.

Root doesn’t escape from the hospital.

She escapes from the ambulance that’s transferring her to the jail.

She escapes despite a broken leg, handcuffs, and three armed guards.

Shaw is absolutely silent when Carter tells her this.

She doesn’t say anything the rest of the night.

She definitely doesn’t think about Root. Not for weeks. Not in the heat of a fight, when her adrenaline is pumping and the roar of the fire threatens to knock her over. Not in the quiet after, when cool air licks her skin as she shucks off her gear. And definitely NOT in void in between, when Shaw feels a tug in her gut like there’s something more calling to her.

It’s been two months. Shaw opens her eyes and Root is standing over her. Over her bunk. _Inside the fire station_. “Miss me?”

The tone is playful but there’s something else there too.

Shaw says something about an intestinal parasites, and Root grins.

“What are you doing here Root?”

“I heard it’s customary to thank the hero that saves your life.”

“Just doing my job.”

Root chuckles before her expression settles into something more serious. “Admit it, Shaw. We’re good at this, together.”

Shaw doesn’t ask what ‘this’ is.

“Root, you’re hot. You’re good with fire. Those are two things I greatly admire. But you and me together would be like- “

“-A Four Alarm fire at an oil refinery?” There’s a heat behind her gaze that Shaw can almost feel.

The station’s alarm goes off.

Root grins again. “Duty calls.” She takes Shaw’s helmet off the peg next to the bed, and holds it out to Shaw. “The city needs their hero.”

Shaw considers clocking Root in the head with the helmet, knocking the woman out and calling Carter to pick up her up, but in the end she just gets up and puts on her gear.

She doesn’t want to pause to figure out why.

As Shaw heads out the door, she stops. She turns. The question is on her tongue- whether or not she’ll see Root again- but she doesn’t ask it. Instead, she nods, and gets a quirked eyebrow in return.

Shaw rides to the call on the side of the truck and doesn’t turn back to look up at the window of the bunk room. She doesn’t need to. She knows Root is watching, just like she knows she hasn’t seen the last of the woman.

A fire only occurs when the right elements are present in just the right combination. A fire is an event, not a thing. It’s something special and totally unique. One of a kind. Shaw doesn’t know what the fire that is her and Root might be like, how it might burn, the route it might run. Shaw doesn’t set fires anymore but thinks that maybe, just this time, she wouldn’t be opposed to letting one run its course.

*_*_*


	2. Art

:) 


End file.
